January 2012 Transfer window

This one will have Dsteer wincing! Its that horrible subject that we have done so well not to mention so far but it has to be something worth consideration right now. Here we go with the shouts for Hazard, Villa, Damiao etc!

The way I see it we had no intention of selling Meireles at the time he went so possibly we were short 1 centre midfielder. gerrards fitness problems have shown no signs of clearing up and he has sadly become somewhat of a luxury. Lucas' injury was just heartbreak, Spearing's 3 match ban might stop him ever really getting another big chance. Jonjo Shelveys recall tells us all we need to know about our strength in the centre right now.

The defence and keeper, for me, are sorted. The back 4 is picking itself then we have top class cover in Carragher, Coates, Kelly and Aurelio plus good reserves in Flanagan, Wisdom, Wilson and Robinson. Doni and Jones are probably good enough, Pepe doesnt let them glove up for training, so I have heard :)

Out wide we have good choice in Bellamy, Downing, Kuyt, Henderson and Maxi although I guess an out and out 'elite' right sided player would be nice. Up top, theres no hiding from it, we arent good enough right now, so far Suarez has 4 league goals, Kuyt 1, Bellamy 1, Carroll 1, that is not good enough. I dont know whether that means we should bring someone in or not but it has to be considered.

For me, I think it would be hard for Kenny not to be thinking about possibly a central midfielder and a forward, he just has to be. Heres a couple of options I think would be worth a look, be good to see everyones opinions and options.

1 of:Cheik Tiote, Lassana Diarra or Seydou Keita

1 of:Dembele, Anelka or Villa ;)

With regards to going outs, its a sign of the times that the list isnt half a page long, no Degens, no El Zhars, the squad really is so much better throughout. I'll throw a few names in the hatNathan Eccleston - (Never going to cut it)Jay Spearing - (Incredibly cruel bit of fair weather villainising!)Danny Wilson - Maybe a loan would be the best thing for the lad?and wait for it.....Dirk Kuyt - Is he happy with his playing time? I very much doubt it. Hes made noises about leaving before and it must be difficult for a 30+ year old having played in a WC final with a European tournament pending. Wouldnt at all be suprised to see him leave and another forward come in

But why? I bet Anelka would have scored more goals for us than Carroll. Granted, he is 32 and definitely not our long term plan, but we are talking about short term covers. What if Suarez is injured for 3 months? He is a proven striker with EPL experience and for the price of a Champion League player! Anyway, forget it, what is done is done. But we still need to find a cover.

Let's face it, we won't be able to get any young, proven strker in the January window, therefore, may as well concentrate on finding a short term solution. I think we should make a serious move for Drogba. Chelsea is planning a clean-out. Even though Drogba is 32, but he is still potent and has a brain for goal. He won't be cheap, may be 12m plus weekly wage of 80k, but I think he is better bet than any others mentioned in the post, including Villa et el.

To be fair, the first thing the owners said was that they were shocked by the lack of depth in the squad as well as suprised by the wage bill and length of contracts to older players. This summer they got rid of every high earning player that we would consider dead weights and replaced them with younger players earning less money, the figures we paid in transfer fees paint a misleading picture.If Joe Cole was earning £100k per week and Henderson £40k then thats over £3m per year with no sell on value, over the rest of Joe Coles contract, that would be £9m plus no value at the end, thats good business. Or how about Milan Jovanovic on £120k per week for another 2 years compared with Bellamys £60k? Thats another £6.25m saved. Unbelievable what are previous regime was leading us to really.Ive drifted a little but my point is that they addressed in this summers window, everything they set out to do with the exception of Phil Jones who we were clearly in for. No one said we were done shopping and no one said that we expected to win stuff with this squad but it was a period to relay our foundations, that has been done, we have a fantastic and balanced core.

Now should be the fun part, the fine tuning and tweeking. There was so much wrong and missing last season that it was hard to know where to start but I think this first 14 matches will have told Kenny and his staff what he needs to move us on another stage.

look no further than the bundesliga...... podolski, huntelaar, and raul could potentially be tempted here... yes, you heard jose right.. raul..... for those of you that don't follow the bundesliga, he showed what he still has in his locker during schalke's champions league run last season and he has said many times that he would love to play in the english league..... yes, he's old, but that may work out, as he'll be cheap, and can you imagine carroll, suarez, etc. training with a legend like that?

of course jose's preference has always been podolski, built for the prem, explosive left-foot, great from a distance, and even better in the box..... can play up front or on the left wing.... obrigado!!

I like Podolski, I really do, he is a quality player, very quick and exciting to watch but he isnt a finisher at all, in fact, didnt he get booed out of Bayern Munich for scoring 2 goals in a full season? Does it in a German shirt, not in a club one.Huntelaar was pretty poor at Real Madrid and he didnt really step up to the plate, thats not to say he is a bad player but I dont think he is that ruthless finisher we need. Raul is a nice idea but he likes to drop off and play a bit, we have players who can do that, what we need is someone who will kill a game from 10 yards, theres no natural finisher in our squad, as good as some of our strikers are, none of them are that.

The shout for Mario Gomez is a good one, he doesnt look a great player but he just is always in the right place and he scores a phenominal amount of goals, a player like him, Higuain, Milito, Hernandez are the sort we are looking for but realistically, none of them are available to us.

We need a goal hanging b*stard a la van Nistelrooy and a right winger.

Also, we need players with the right mentality, its no coincidence that we draw so many games against lesser opposition. I've said it before, but we need to be able to win when we're playing badly, and we defo don't have that at the moment.

for me a striker is important this January i read Andy carrol, and king Kenny not to worried about his lack of game play and goals because of the injury he picked up at Newcastle. and the medical staff have come up with a plan so that he gets stronger hes still young and Liverpool have a long term plan for him. so playing him now could risk his future look at Owen, so i would bring in Mario Gomez from Bayern Munich still 26 13 goals from 14 starts this session looks good